Adam Sparks, One of a Kind: The Relationship between Old and New Covenants as the Hermeneutical Key for Christian Theology of Religions (Eugene, Oregon: Pickwick, 2010), 325 pages, ISBN 9781606083451.

In this book Reformed theologian Adam Sparks attempts to contribute to the theology of religions conversation by offering a critique of some of the most popular approaches within this discipline. Unlike other projects that focus upon soteriology, this author limits his conversation to the relationship between the old and new covenants as it is treated by inclusivist models. In short, inclusivism maintains that people of faith traditions outside of Christianity may experience salvation by being included in the saving work of Christ. Ultimately, this means that it is not always necessary for an individual to be within the Christian faith in order to be a part of God’s redemptive activity. A Hindu, for example, may experience salvation, if God chooses to do so. The Hindu faith is not redemptive, rather it is God’s work within or despite his religious background that saves. There are many different nuances of the inclusivist position, and Sparks points out that many inclusivists affirm the fulfillment model. The fulfillment model maintains that Christ “fills out” non-Christian religions where they fall short. In other words, where other religions are incomplete, Christ fills in the gaps. Many inclusivist theologians apply the fulfillment model to the relationship between the old and new covenants. Just as Christ’s new covenant is the fulfillment of the old covenant, analogously, Christ must also be the fulfillment of all other religions. Christ not only completes the Jewish faith, but he is the capstone for all non-Christian religions. However, Sparks disagrees. He states “[T]he Israel analogy and fulfillment model have failed to comprehend the organic, progressive nature of this salvation history….[F]urther…the Israel analogy and fulfillment model undermine the significance of the Christ-event in salvation history by failing to appreciate the decisive effect of this event on history and the nature of existence”, and it is this point that motivates Sparks’ objective (xxiv).

The Power of the Cross: The Biblical Place of Healing and Gift-Based Ministry in Proclaiming the Gospel

How the New Testament describes the supernatural can tell us a great deal about how we should see the miraculous.

Continued from Part 1 appearing in the Winter 2007 issue

III. Signs, Wonders, and Miracles Are Intended to Encourage Belief and Deepen Faith in Christ

It is true that “signs do not in themselves create faith in the hearts of observers and can even harden hearts,”⁴¹ as in the case of the Pharisees. F. F. Bruce noted this as well:

What about the signs he [Jesus] actually performed? Why were they not sufficient to convince his questioners? … If the restoration of bodily and mental health could be dismissed as a work of Satan, no number of healing acts would have established the divine authority by which they were performed…While the healing miracles did serve as signs of the kingdom of God to those who had eyes to see, they did not compel belief in those who were prejudiced in the opposite direction.⁴²

But Scripture also shows that one function of signs, wonders, and miracles in the ministry of Jesus and the Early Church was to awaken and encourage faith in the gospel being preached. Why else would the Early Church have prayed prayers like the following, asking God for signs and wonders of healing to accompany its evangelism?

Acts 4:29-30—“Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” God obviously granted such requests in the Early Church (e.g., Acts 5:12-16; 6:8; 8:4-8, 12-13, 26-39; 9:17-18, 32-42; etc.).

Jesus more than once challenged his listeners to believe His word on the basis of His miraculous works:

John 10:37-38—“Do not believe me unless I do the miraculous works (ta erga⁴³) of my Father. But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the miraculous works (tois ergois), that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.”

John 14:11—“Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miraculous works themselves (dia ta erga auta).”

Mark 2:10—“‘But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins…’ He said to the paralytic, ‘I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.’” In his Gospel, John calls all of Jesus’ works of miraculous healing “signs” (sēmeia; Jn. 4:54; 6:2; 9:16: 12:17-18)—e.g., Jn. 6:2, “They saw the miraculous signs he had performed on the sick.”⁴⁴ The miraculous healings of Jesus are also called “works” (erga) in John’s Gospel.⁴⁵ Jesus provided abundant “signs” of miraculous healing to those who were open and seeking God, as every one of the Gospel accounts show. John then said of the signs, “These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God” (Jn. 20:31).

In His condemnation of Korazin and Bethsaida’s lack of repentance and faith, Jesus indicates that His miraculous works were intended to produce repentance and faith in Him (Mat. 11:21; and Lk. 10:13):

Matthew 11:21—“Woe to you, Korazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.” Paul expected to proclaim the gospel “in the power of signs and wonders through the power of the Spirit” (Rom. 15:18-19; I Cor. 1:6-7; 2:4-5; II Cor. 12:12; I Thes. 1:5), and he expected God to continue to distribute spiritual gifts and work miracles among the churches to confirm the gospel and build up and encourage the church (Rom. 12:6-8; I Cor. 1:7; 12:1-14:40; Gal. 3:5; Eph. 4:7-13; I Thes. 5:19-22; I Tim. 4:14; II Tim. 1:6-7). Paul says that the gift of prophecy is a sign “for believers” (I Cor. 14:22).⁴⁶ As a sign it encourages and builds up the church in its faith (I Cor. 14:1-5). Through it God gives supernatural insight into the secrets of people’s hearts (“the secrets of his heart will be laid bare” I Cor. 14:25),⁴⁷ and thus it demonstrates that “God is really among you!” (I Cor. 14:24-25).

The Power of the Cross: The Biblical Place of Healing and Gift-Based Ministry in Proclaiming the Gospel

How the New Testament describes the supernatural can tell us a great deal about how we should see the miraculous.

The year is 1906. A young sixteen year old girl named Henrietta Mears, living in Minneapolis, Minnesota, has just had a painful accident. She somehow “jabbed a hat pin into the pupil of an eye. Her doctors could do nothing for the condition and predicted possible blindness for her.”¹ Henrietta’s family, which attends the First Baptist Church of Minneapolis, asks a close friend named Mr. Ingersoll, an elder in a local Presbyterian church, to come pray for Henrietta’s eye in accordance with James 5:14-16. In response to their prayers, God graciously heals Henrietta’s vision:

Henrietta had no doubt that the God who had made her could also heal her eye. Specialists who later examined the eye agreed there was indeed a hole in the pupil and shook their heads in amazement that she could see anything out of it. That she was, in fact, seeing could not be explained except that God had stretched forth His hand and healed her eye—even though the hole remained. Henrietta learned from this experience and from her mother to accept all Scripture at face value. For God to touch her body simply meant taking Him at His word.²

Henrietta Mears went on to be used greatly by God as Director of Christian Education and College Teacher at Hollywood Presbyterian Church, Hollywood, California. She founded Gospel Light Publications and Forest Home Christian Conference Center in the San Bernardino mountains of southern California. She influenced the ministries and lives of such great evangelical leaders as Bill Bright, who founded Campus Crusade for Christ, and Billy Graham, who called her “one of the greatest Christians I have ever known.”³ Towards the end of her life Henrietta sought all the gifts of the Spirit for her life and Christian work: “I have enjoyed spiritual gifts, … I have had the Spirit’s presence. But now I want every thing that He has for me. I want all the gifts.”⁴

When he was four years old, my own son underwent two painful and traumatic surgeries in the spring of 1991 to correct a congenital defect which he had at birth. That summer the condition had not healed as expected and the specialist who had performed the first two surgeries predicted my son would need a third surgery in the early fall. After persistent prayer by my wife and me and the elders of our church, God touched and healed our son of the condition. The specialist told us that my son’s condition had reversed itself and that this was “highly unusual” in cases like my son’s. My son never had a third surgery and continues to this day without any further need of medical attention for his former condition.

On many occasions my wife and I have also seen God give supernatural insight in prayer to accomplish His purposes. In late February, 1992, my wife was praying with a woman named Carolyn at a monthly church meeting. Carolyn did not know me or my wife well. She knew nothing of our personal lives at the time nor that we had a four year old son and a one and a half year old daughter. Carolyn also did not know that my wife was concerned that she was not spending enough quality time with our son, who at that time had a language-processing deficiency. My wife did not know that Carolyn had been unemployed for six months and had finally gotten a job that very day.

Neither my wife nor Carolyn shared these personal details with each other before they prayed together. As they prayed and asked the Lord to guide their time of prayer, Carolyn saw a picture of a backyard with two children, a boy and a girl, playing on a swing-set and in a wooden-sided sandbox (the only two items which our backyard has). Carolyn sensed God saying that “everything is alright with the children because God is watching over them.” At the same time, my wife saw a picture of the beach and the ocean which she did not understand. It just so happened that Carolyn had had the job interview that day at a Ventura beach. Carolyn shared that God had provided her with a job that day “at the beach.” My wife and Carolyn thanked the Lord for this encouraging witness of His provision and protection in both their lives (Mat. 6:8; Phil. 4:5b-7).

In late September, 1992, I took a cab from the Los Angeles International airport to nearby Santa Monica and was praying for the cab driver, a middle-aged man, and for an opportunity to share Christ with him. Three thoughts flashed through my mind as I prayed: that he was Russian, that he was Jewish, and that he had a daughter whom he dearly loved (I saw a picture in my mind of a young five year old girl with him). The first fact I could have inferred from his name, Boris. The last two facts I could not have known naturally (his last name was not typically Jewish but Russian). I shared these insights with him and found out they were all true—he was Jewish and had only one child, a daughter about five years old whom he loved very much. Then I told him about Jesus, who revealed those insights, who knew every detail of his life, and who, as Israel’s Messiah, loved him enough to die for his sins. Though he did not receive Christ as Savior at that moment, he was grateful for what I said and for my prayer for him and his family. And I was grateful that the Lord demonstrated His presence and His love for this man in a way I could not have done by myself.

The Power of the Cross: The Biblical Place of Healing and Gift-Based Ministry in Proclaiming the Gospel

Understanding the Hebrew Scriptures and Hebrew culture is crucial to understanding how Jesus and the early church viewed sin, the demonic, and the fallen world they lived in.

Introduction

Christ’s death on the Cross atones for and cleanses us from all sin, and the atonement of the Cross provides the basis for God’s work to sanctify us and restore us from the brokenness which sin brought into our lives (Isa 53:4-6; Mk 10:45; Rom 3:22-25; 5:8-9; II Cor 5:21; Gal 3:13; Col 1:21-22; I Tim 2:6; Heb 2:14; 9:14, 26-28; 10:10; I Pet 1:18-21; 2:24; 3:18; I Jn 2:2; 3:5, 8). How is sin related to healing and wholeness in the Bible, and how is personal sin related to praying for someone’s healing as prescribed in James 5?

The problem with the human race is, according to Scripture, sin, and the problem with sin is that it has effects. What is more, the effects are not simply the immediate results of the sinful act, but also the long-term consequences of the act, sometimes affecting only the individual and at times engulfing the whole of the human race.¹ In this chapter we want to look at what parts of the human experience are traceable to sin, as well as examine the biblical solution to these consequences.

Sin and the Fruit of Sin in the Old Testament

The history of sin in the Old Testament begins with the introduction of sin in Genesis 3. The human beings (both the woman and the man, “who was with her,” Gen 3:6) desired to “be like God,” disobeyed and so sinned. The results are portrayed immediately: shame at their nakedness (3:7; perhaps shame is a symbol for their vulnerability); fear of the presence of God (3:8); disorder in the natural world (3:14,17); disruption of human relationships (3:16); disturbance of the generative process (3:16);² loss of sovereignty (3:15;18); and death (3:19).

The flood narrative itself indicates the pervasiveness of sin. At both ends of the narrative the writer declares that “every thought (or, thing formed in the thought) of a human being was only evil from youth.” (Gen 6:6; cf. 8:21) While on the one end of the narrative this inner evil is the reason for the destruction of the created order, a return to watery chaos, from which only Noah and his family are saved, on the other, it results in a type of resigned understanding on the part of God. Yet the next chapter places some limitations on violence in that, unlike the penalty exacted on Cain, now murderers will be executed. Law, then, becomes a result of sin.⁴

The rest of the Old Testament amplifies these positions about the results of sin. That sin can lead to judgment and death is almost cliché in terms of the Old Testament. The cycle of sin and oppression (which included death in battle and death through the oppression) is the theme of Judges. The prophets are concerned about impending judgment which they speak about in terms of various forms of death (sword, plague, etc.).

Sin Can Lead to Broken Relationships and Poverty

Another mark of sin seen in all of these narratives is the destruction of the social fabric of the people. One sees this graphically in the case of Lot in Gen. 19. On the one hand, the sin of Sodom (lack of hospitality to the extent of the abuse of foreigners) leads to the destruction of the city, for it confirms the “outcry against Sodom” (Gen 18:20 NIV) and thus seals its doom, especially since every man in Sodom is involved and Lot has only four people with him (thus less than the ten righteous needed to save the city). On the other hand, the narrative ends with incest by Lot’s daughters because society as they knew it was gone. Here is a destroyed social fabric to the extent that the incest taboo is broken. The author of Genesis appears to contrast this fate with that of Abraham. Lot may have been righteous, but he is not as righteous as Abraham.